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Voiced By

Chase Ashbaker

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Far less sophisticated than the current Fulgores, the CCIXs were thoroughly effective killing machines; but they were prone to overheating, and their teleportation systems were buggy. But one of these units had become self-aware and had started altering its own code. For that reason, ARIA had kept it from the scrapheap; and here it remained until she found a use for it.

Kilgore (codename designation UA-CCIX) is a new character introduced in the post-Season Three content of Killer Instinct (2013). Part of a vintage series of heavy assault cyborgs that were manufactured by Ultratech in the distant past, this war machine is the last remaining unit of the decommissioned CCIX precursor series to the Fulgore cyborgs. Kilgore was placed in storage by ARIA after it was found to display a sense of self-awareness, having independently altered its own programming. Kilgore was first revealed in the patch notes of the 3.6 update, where it was also officially announced for a January 2017 release date.

Contents

Biography

Appearance

Kilgore heavily resembles its cousin unit, Fulgore, though with some drastic changes. Its head is much bulkier and considerably less humanoid, its "face" consisting of a single, glowing, vertical line and its helmet plume being replaced with several wires. It also has larger shoulders and its arms are replaced with massive chain guns. Its alloy is a matte dark gray color, as opposed to Fulgore's shiny jet black color.

Personality

Like Fulgore, Kilgore is a heartless war machine - however, it does not possess the mind of a human, giving it a less cunning sense of strategy but an even colder instinct. This certain Kilgore's AI, however, is faulty due to years of inaction, and upon its awakening it goes rogue and wreaks havoc on Ultratech before being subdued and placed back under ARIA's control. It is quite outdated compared to other Ultratech creations and fairly dysfunctional, discharging electricity and twitching occasionally.

Similar to the recent Fulgore Mk. III, Kilgore has become self-aware, but unlike the former whose self-awareness due to its human elements causes it to be rebellious and usually reject orders given, Kilgore seeks to constantly adjust its faulty programming in order to stand out amongst both its evolved Ultratech allies and its fallen brethren that were already doomed to the scrapheap from the start.

Abilities

Though its design is vintage, Kilgore remains a deadly war machine on the battlefield, even next to the far more advanced Fulgore models. Heavier and bulkier than the more streamlined Fulgores, resulting in a slower and lumbering movement, the CCIX model features twin arm-mounted miniguns and heavy ordnance as its primary weapons, pinning down and destroying targets from afar like a walking artillery platform. However, due to the faulty design of the CCIX series, Kilgore's miniguns will rapidly overheat when fired without pause, rendering them unusable until cooled—a defect that caused Ultratech to scrap the model altogether. The unit controlled by the player, however, has uniquely modified itself to use this overheating as a tactical advantage, altering its combat routines to employ the burning, white-hot barrels as terrible bludgeons in close quarter combat situations.

Inside of its chest, where a Fulgore unit's miniaturized nuclear reactor core would be located, the CCIX model is equipped with a rocket launcher that fires volleys of heat-seeking missiles at designated targets. The targeting system is also bugged however, and cannot compensate for additional movement by the mark once the missiles have been launched. In addition, Kilgore's teleportation system is largely dysfunctional, which causes the unit to remain stationary when used, and activating it while Kilgore is overheating will cause the cyborg to violently explode. However, Kilgore is apparently capable of grasping that the explosion will result in only minimal structural damage to itself yet will incinerate almost any other object caught within the blast radius, and has reprogrammed itself to use this defect as a devastating weapon whenever its hardware becomes overheated.

Due to the heavier weight of the CCIX series relative to the Fulgore model, Kilgore also features more powerful thrusters in its limbs. The cyborg has been observed to exploit this for tactical gains as well, using the momentum offered by the thrusters to suddenly propel itself forward in a somersaulting tackle; closing the distance between it and its victim and giving its improvised close quarter combat attacks tremendous leverage while battering the target.

Story

Introduction

Before Fulgore and the Mark 03 units were introduced to the world, Ultratech created a line of failed cyborgs during the secret "CCIX Program". These hulking battle machines bore twin overpowered miniguns that tended to overheat, making them unstable and unfit for service. But one cyborg--nicknamed "Kilgore"--became self-aware, and started rewriting his own software to account for this deficiency in his hardware. Saved from the scrapheap, this special unit has been brought out of retirement by ARIA to enforce her will...and Kilgore obeys.

Shadow Lords

The last remaining unit of the scrapped UA-CCIX cyborg line, this war machine is mounted with heavy twin miniguns as well as high-caliber artillery. Despite its remarkable effectiveness at eliminating targets by means of indiscriminate firepower (and high collateral damage to both environment and friendly units), Kilgore's vintage combustion engine is prone to overheating, and its prototype teleportation system suffers from frequent glitches. Deemed too unstable to be a viable service product, Ultratech cancelled the CCIX series in favor of the more promising Fulgore Mark 01 cyborgs.

Several hundred CCIX units had been manufactured before the decision to terminate the series was made. All of them were decommissioned and sent to the scrapheap, save for a single one--a unit that displayed self-awareness and which had altered its own programming in order to turn the defects of its hardware into tactical advantages. Intrigued, ARIA dubbed the unit "Kilgore" and had it placed in storage. Many years later, ARIA reactivates this unique prototype to assist Ultratech in the war against Gargos, but it goes berserk and commences a "friendly fire" killing spree. With the aid of the Alliance, Ultratech subdues the rogue war machine and reboots it to serve the megacorporation's interests once again.

But ARIA also ensured that the unique modifications Kilgore had wrought upon itself were kept completely intact...

Gameplay

Combat Trait - Chain Gun Spin Speed: Firing Kilgore's chain guns make them spin faster, which increases the number of projectiles it fires at a time. Spin Speed decreases over time when not using Chain Gun attacks. Forward and Back Throws also increase Chain Gun speed.

Combo Trait - Overheat: Using Chain Gun attacks too much causes them to Overheat. Bullets fired travel a shorter distance but explode, dealing a short burst of Potential Damage to the opponent. Overheat decreases over time or when Exhaust is used.

Instinct Mode - Quality Assurance: Kilgore gets all the benefits of Overheat mode while maintaining the use of its ranged Chain Gun attacks.

Missile Pod - (QCB+K) - Fires 3 missiles. Light shoots horizontally. Medium fires missiles horizontally and can be aimed using the Left Stick. Heavy fires missiles into the air that track. Missiles explode when they reach the reticule. Acts as a Damage Ender.

Kilgore opens its chest and launches a missile in the air, then flips over the defeated opponent as the defeated opponent looks at the missile, which flies back down aiming towards the defeated opponent; Kilgore appears from behind the defeated opponent to grab a hold of its victim as the missile is flying closer towards both Kilgore and the victim, Kilgore's chain guns begin to overheat while the victim is still struggling and staring at the missile at a final moment, Kilgore then explodes on the victim causing the victim to launch forward towards the missile, which explodes at a direct hit on the victim — instantly killing the victim and causing the screen to go white; the screen fades back to Kilgore, who is broken down from the explosion and covered in statics, but then automatically repairs itself back in one piece in a sitting position.

Following Rash, Mira, General RAAM and Eyedol over the course of Season Three, Kilgore doesn't have his own stage in Killer Instinct, but does have his own selectable theme for any stage. Interestingly, Kilgore shares Fulgore's Ultratech Industries as his stage in the game, likely as a placeholder, similar to the situation with Omen sharing the Shadow Tiger's Lair with Shadow Jago and Gargos (temporarily), Mira sharing the Alchemical Lab with Sabrewulf and Eyedol sharing the Forbidden Archive with Kan-Ra and Rash in Survival Mode. This makes him the sixth overall fighter as well as the first character in Post-Season 3 amongst the roster who does not have a stage, but shares an arena with another combatant.

Kilgore's glowing "face", gun arms, and the backstory of its deactivation is somewhat similar to the BastionOmnics from "Overwatch".

Kilgore is the second "remix" character in the game, next to Shadow Jago.

Because of this, it will not receive a Retro costume for the foreseeable future.